See,

even despite all these wounds

I still think I’m a tribe leader

just one war-painted in blood and scars instead of tribal markings

and I can still host the dance around the bonfire

I can still fuel flames

I can still beat drums, though weaker now,

because if my heart isn’t a skin stretched across a frame

drumming in time to mother nature

providing the rhythm section to the hum of creation

then what is it?